In 2008, we recognized the first Marconi Society Young Scholars and knew that we were on to something good. By honoring and supporting young researchers who are creating innovative solutions to the biggest challenges in communications and the Internet, our goal was to identify the next generation of Marconis.
Thanks to the generous support of 1988 Marconi Fellow, Federico Faggin, we have been privileged to get to know and champion 41 outstanding Young Scholars over the past 11 years. These researchers now teach at the world’s most prestigious universities, lead teams at top corporations and research organizations and create innovative startups.
The good news keeps coming for our Young Scholars and I would like to recognize some exceptional recent achievements:
Salvatore Campione, a 2013 Young Scholar, was recognized with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). PECASE awards $250,000 in research support over a five-year period and is awarded to scientists and engineers beginning their careers who show exceptional promise for leadership in science and technology.
Campione was honored for “Pioneering work in metamaterial and nanophotonic design, capability development in accurately predicting electromagnetic-pulse consequences on the U.S. power grid, and for excellence in engaging with the external scientific community and mentoring junior staff.”
Joe Lukens, a 2015 Young Scholar, was one of only seven Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers to receive the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science Early Career Research Program award. This award supports the development of individual research programs of outstanding scientists early in their careers and stimulates research careers in the disciplines supported by the DOE Office of Science.
Lukens received funding for his proposal, “Scalable Architectures for Hybrid Quantum/Classical Networking.” His project seeks to overcome technical challenges of quantum communication network development by researching, designing and testing a new generation of photonic technologies that exploit the dual nature of light—particle and wave—to transmit quantum information over long distances.
Negar Reiskarimian, a 2017 Young Scholar, started a new position as Assistant Professor, EECS, at MIT. Negar, along with her five other new colleagues “are poised to make significant contributions in new directions across the school and to a wide range of research efforts around the Institute.” Negar will build on her innovations in integrated circuit design that can double wireless bandwidth and help drive 5G, IoT and other leading edge services and applications.
Eitan Yaakobi, a 2009 Young Scholar, has been promoted to Associate Professor in the Computer Science at The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Eitan’s research interests include information and coding theory with applications to non-volatile memories, associative memories, data storage and retrieval, and voting theory. His recent work to bring the storage density of DNA to data centers and commercial applications has the potential to change the way the world’s 2.7 Zettabytes of data are stored.
Our Young Scholars continue to forge pathways to new knowledge, inspiring us and their young colleagues – and this is exactly what the award is intended to do.
